Hot Cross Buns

I don’t generally blog about me and my life (aside from books, obviously) because of several reasons. Mostly, a) I’m not exciting, b) I really hate having my picture taken like I loathe it with the fire of a thousand suns, and c) did I mention how much I hate photos?

BUT. It’s Easter. I was photographing Skulduggery Pleasant 6: Death Bringer (as you do) and noticed the delicious photos of hot cross buns on the camera and I thought, “Now, Cait. You have new followers. No doubt they’d like to see your [fabulous] face. No doubt it’d be fun to show them the delicious food you cooked and then laugh because they cannot eat any.”

And I’m also tolerably proud of cooking hot cross buns with a 2 and 4 year old and avoiding several calamities (of which include having a tablespoon of salt nearly dumped into the mixture).

So let me tell you about the time I Made Hot Cross Buns With Preschoolers Which Could Have Ended In Calamity But Instead Was Delicious.

And my family can refrain from smirking that I used the very photos I glared at them for taking. I maintain my glare! But, eh, blog before privacy, I suppose.

It started off like any other time I bake in my house. My mum spied me and said, “HERE. YOU. COOK THIS.” To which, I agreed because I have a gargantuan weakness for sultanas (raisins). But please! Understand this! Cooking is not an easy feat for me. I’ve been notoriously bad at it all my life due to always misreading recipes. (I swear they write them weirdly on purpose.) I’ve destroyed a lot of things. Don’t ask me about the orange cake. It wasn’t my fault.

But, apparently, the “you” in Mum’s sentence was misconstrued and floated across the kitchen to the ears of two small (half-naked as usual) children who though she meant THEM.

She didn’t.

But try telling them that, when their sticky paws were already dragging chairs into the kitchen.

Now, it’s very important to understand that my nephew and niece know EVERYTHING. I know nothing next to these know-it-alls, duh. They know how to cook and they know how to use a Thermomix (which is a fabulous creation of humankind that weighs/cooks/mixes all in one device and, in fact, is the only reason I ever attempt to cook). Do they need me? Pfft. Of course not.

Since I was impersonating an octopus by trying not to let Eva (2yrs) dump the entire container of salt in the bowl, while simultaneously moderating how many teaspons of cinnamon Xave (4yrs) was using…I climbed on the chair too.

I do like to look down on people anyway.

My mum and oldest sister (owner of these small hooligans) thought this was hilarious. IT WAS NOT HILARIOUS. IT WAS SURVIVAL.

And also, the height helped me be able to dip into the sultanas whilst directing these minions in cooking.

I did rather well at directing. I’ve missed my calling. I should be a Destruction Coordinator.

The Thermomix is reportedly very loud when grinding cashews.

It was basically cinnamon-flavoured chaos.

Sultanas everywhere. Atticus (my 6month puppy) was eating currents off the floor. We had a ground cloves sea under the teaspoon measurements. Eva ate, like, a million cashews. Three of us shuffled around on that one chair to the tune of, “EB, scootch your butt!” and “Brother’s turn!”

I have no idea why, but they refer to each other as “brother” and “sister” a lot, so I do too, because LET’S FACE IT: names are confusing. I would happily refer to people as “human 1” and “human 2”. This is Reason #53903 why I will make a great world ruler.

And, perhaps, I forgot what the word was for beaten egg whites (it’s…surprisingly…beaten egg whites) and called them “gooble”, which is now what Xave thinks they’re called.

“Add in da gooble!” he shouted and nearly wiped me out with a spatula.

There was a lot of licking and double-dipping involved. I, in no way, vouch for the cleanliness of these hot cross buns.

I also suspect, with less tasting from Minion 1 and Minion 2, there would’ve been more buns made. And there’s also that one bun Eva dropped on the floor. It was a mad dive between me and the dog to see who got there first. I won, but barely.

The Minions’ handler did the crosses, with much difficulty, due to her enormous size. (What?! I’m her little sister! I’m allowed to make mean jokes while she’s great with child.) Yes, there is a 3rd minion due any day now. I’m not sure how 4 of us will fit standing on a chair.

I suspect I’ll have to choose favourites between my niece and nephew and Unnamed Gendered Relative. No doubt I’ll pick whichever one is less sticky.

Despite the near miss with an enormous amount of cloves (cloves are powerful, people! It could’ve been a disaster!), the mixture tasted utterly divine. And when cooked? They were delicious. Very fruity and spicy and moist.

They’re made on cashews and sweetened with coconut syrup because our family is odd like that. I’m joking, Mum! Don’t sigh. I know it’s for health reasons.

Obviously they’re small sweet buns with copious amounts of raisins/sultanas/currents. They’re traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the UK and Australia (apparently also in Canada and India!) so my wonderful American friends are probably missing out.

There are lots of superstitions surrounding hot cross buns (one being they’ll never grow mouldy but I think that’s because they never LAST to go mouldy), including the practise that if you share one, it’s a bond of friendship:

“Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be.”

Clearly I’ll never have friends.

have you even eaten a hot cross bun?! better yet: have you ever cooked with preschoolers?! (it’s an…adventure.) SO TELL ME! what do you traditionally do around Easter?! do you have holidays? family gatherings? delicious food? i’m really curious!

Cait @ Paper Fury
…is currently mourning the fact hot cross buns in her house will, indeed, never go mouldy because…they were gone in one sitting. So sad. Between moaning about this, she’s finishing reviewing Skulduggery 6 and about to start on Eon which, she hopes, contains lots epic dragonish action.

Ooooh!!! I ate hot cross buns yesterday! ( I didn’t make them though). They were more bready than yours, I think, and mainly had sultanas and cinnamon and got a bit deflated and hard because the electricity went off during the storm for an hour when they were half cooked. But they were still delicious, even this morning. I totally empathise with the misreading recepie thing! I have so often not read the recepie before then halfway found out we didn’t have whichever necessary ingredient. Once i was making lasagne and the recpie needed 400 mLs of water. ‘oh dear’ I think. ‘1.4 litres is a lot of water. I’ll just add 700 mls’ lets just say it was very soupy lasagne. When I lived with my aunt, she was really not into sugar (or dairy or gluten. The aforemetioned lasgne was gluten free. anyway.) so even though I love sugar, I am gettting better at not judging people who don’t (and I know it isn’t healthy, but that couldn’t stop me.) I totally understand about the toddler thing too. I’ve baked with my six year old sister sometimes (when she was younger too) and it’s… fun. All day yesterday and half of today I was helping babysit about 11 under 5 year olds (well maybe one or 2 were over, but they were being super bossy) and keeping them busy and not fighting or crashing into each other or anything is hard. It is lovely to see our supreme overlord’s face and discover about her extreme talent when it comes to controlling minions, so thanks for posting the photos (and woah, long comment)

Why thank you. *bows* I'm just proving to you that I EXIST AND AM NOT A WORLD DOMINEERING ROBOT. *nods* And my minion-controlling skills could use a lot of work, but the world is young and I shall practise at directing! I shall. HUZZAH. *ahem* Yes it is easy to think people who don't eat sugar/dairy/gluten are rather odd…i used to think they were. -_- BUT I'm kind of converted. heh. I haven't had anything with actual sugar in it for months. #yaygome *sigh* Although I miss ice cream something awful.

In our house, Hot Cross Buns are traditionally eaten as soon as they appear in the shops until they’re taken off the shelves. 😉 Seriously, though, THEY ARE THE BEST. So delicious. But anyway… who needs friends when you’ve got Hot Cross Buns?? 🙂 Here we’re not religious in the slightest, so we don’t do much save for eat chocolate and buns. BUT I *am* Greek, and when I was younger it was a tradition to dye eggs different colours (years later I’m still not sure why.) (Then we found out my older brother was allergic to eggs! Hah. That was the end of that.)

I LIKE YOUR IDEA OF HOT CROSS BUN TRADITION. I wish we did that. I loooove them so much. But I also like fruit bread too. Omg. FRUIT BREAD. *drools a little* Especially toasted and smothered with butter. Ahhhhhem. I digress. STILL. It sounds like you have a perfect Easter, imo. Oh my gosh. Allergic to eggs?! THAT IS THE WORST. Eggs are like in everything.

After reading about these delicious hot cross buns: + 1 for Australia, -1 for America. 😉

And haha…I have cooked with preschoolers before. (Well, if you count teenage boys I suppose….with their lack of brain capacity, I suppose they’re close enough to preschoolers. 😉 Unfortunately for me, I’m subjected to having cooking class every day at school… *sighs*). Like you have witnessed, it’s definitely quite a disaster adventure. 😉

Thanks for sharing this Cait – it was quite entertaining to read. And it made me quite hungry for some nonexistent hot cross buns. 😐

AUSTRALIA IS BETTER, THAT IS ALL. Although, to be truthful we did steal hot cross buns from England so. Um, yeah, #awkward My country is notoriously unoriginal. HA. I count teenage boys as preschoolers. -_- Although sometimes preschoolers have more sense. lol 😉 I would say “JUST KIDDING” but it's kinda true. AHEM. SO ANYWAY. Adventure for sure, aren't we awesomely positive?! 😉

Hee hee hee, I LOVE your description of cooking with the minions!!! Too gorgeous, and please post more everyday life posts like this because they’re so funnnnnnyyyy!!! Glad you liked the buns, too. 🙂 Happy Easter to all the family!

This reminds me of cooking with my much younger three siblings. They were around 2, 4 and 6 at the time. I actually don’t know how I did it, but I had some rules, and they knew they would get banished if they intentionally broke the rules. Now I’m all moved out and hardly see them. Treasure those crazy moments, because they change.

Lucky you that they believed you'd banish them. xD I usually get quite flustered cooking new things BUT I SURVIVED. *deep breaths* Also the reward for this was quite delicious so that was motivating. xD And it's true, *nods* they are the cutest at this age and it changes so SO fast.

🙂 They are so cute! And you’re right I’m American and I’ve never had Hot Cross Buns. I have a recipe though. And I’ve never cooked with a preschooler though that day is coming up quick since my baby will be a preschooler soon (too soon).

For Good Friday, my husband is off work so we go out to eat for lunch and then we usually go to church. That’s it! On Easter, my side of the family back in my hometown go to church, eat lunch together, take (a go-zillion) pictures in our outfits, and then we play softball. The littles have an Easter egg hunt.

I had NO idea it was only a UK/AUS thing until I looked them up today. ha! Funny the things we learn, right?! I suspect Australia stole the concept from England, but BAH. They're delicious. They're Australian. xD awwww, preschooler is a hilarious age though! My nephew has started telling stories and, my gosh, he's already quite good with keeping a plotline going. I'm in awe. xDYour Easter sounds AMAZING and seriously fun!

We are a hot cross bun-less household because my mum’s gluten intolerant and the gluten free ones are like rocks made of cardboard. Also I don’t like dried fruit, so it’s kind of a moot point for me!

But the cooking with small children I have done on many an occasion. My niece always wants to crack the eggs, which never fails to terrify me. I mean, I know that a lot of the time, *I* mangle egg cracking. And I’m 22 years older than her…

Ugh, gluten free cooking is sooo hit or miss. Well, when you use flour. We use almonds (or cashews) as flour and it's soooo delicious and moist. xD My nephew will NOT crack eggs. But my the 2 year old niece? UM. YES. AND IT'S ALWAYS A BAD IDEA. When is it unacceptable to scoop eggs off the floor….

I didn’t know hot cross buns are an Easter tradition! Ugh, children. I’m not good with the tiny humans, so no I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with them. 😀

I’m not religious, so Easter usually just kind of passes me by, but we get public holidays and when I was younger we used to go an egg/chocolate hunt. I also got an amazon gift card from my grandma (which I already used), so all in all I definitely don’t have a problem with Easter. 🙂

OH YOU ARE MISSING OUT. XD But my little sister, Mime, who is absolutely absent from these pictures is the same….gah. She always avoids small children + messes + kitchen.Ooooh Amazon giftcard sounds FABULOUS. You have an awesome grandma. XD

this post is gold XD And so are those pictures. I love them. You’re an awesome aunt and I hope to be like you when my minion comes(end of September!) Do you have, like, Minion-Handling classes or something? Or a Minion-training course? Cuz I need to learn from you XD

OH YOU ARE GOING TO BE AN AUNT?!! YAY FOR YOU!! Minion-training courses would be awesome actually. I take Minion-lesson plans. Becuase apparently “ajfdklads jafdlka jgooo” actually translates to “I want food now, slave, get it” in minionese.

I have cooked with preschoolers and eaten many hot cross buns. We had so yesterday, but I don’t think they were as gloriously sticky and sweet as yours look. But still absolutely delicious. I’m sure the coconut was amazing. I do have holidays, but I haven’t had much time to read because a) homework, b) babysitting and c) EXAMS START NEXT WEEK AAAAAGGGGGH and d) homework. English essays should be banned during holidays, except for the fact that I really enjoy them.

Hmm, for Easter our family usually goes for a hike/tramp. But its all rainy at the moment and mum is injured, so probably not going to be a long one. And of course we have all the Easter traditions like food (made Easter eggs with dark chocolate and apricot) and services and things. And there are inevitably people staying with us which is fun, but also makes me want to crawl in my book fort made of books I have already read and love greatly.

I’ve actually never eaten one of these — I did play a song called “Hot Cross Buns” on my recorder in primary school, but that’s it. We don’t do much on Easter, really — basically just enjoy the holidays. There is one Chinese holiday that often overlaps in Easter though, and it’s the holiday when we all march up hills to the cemeteries and light incense to family graves. Although our family doesn’t really need to do that, fortunately, since most of our closer relatives are still alive and kicking.

Loved all the photos here! First of all, your shirt is gorgeous and I want a stuffed owl. Obviously, you can be a Destruction Co-ordinator. A sultana-stealing destruction co-ordinator. And I totally know the glare-inducing photos that you later have to appropriate for personal use. At that point I regret all the photos I have to throw out due to the glares. Oh, and re: tablespoon of salt, once we mixed up the sugar and the salt in the bread dough. The yeast all died. I suppose I have a talent for killing micro-scale beings like you do for destruction XD

Omg, recorders. YES. I feel like hot cross buns is like one of the beginnings of any musical instrument ever. Although I hated the recorder when I was small. UGH I HATED IT. Piano though, I loved. Ohhhh, I digress. xDI always regret my photos. And they seem to get worse every year. Gah. Some people are just not photogenic, right?! I AM ONE OF THEM. All our spice jars are messed up now, though. -_- The cinnamon has cloves in it and goodness, let's not talk about the nutmeg…

I had vague, dim memories of cooking with a minion years ago, until December 2014 when I actually cooked with one again. We made sticky gooey chocolate balls and believe me, the experience was memorable. Said minion had a strange effect on my heart which turned rather sticky and gooey as well. I suppose it was a side effect of not cooking with minions for such a prolonged period of time. Oddly, I would repeat the experience, in a heartbeat. Do you think I am beyond help?

I’m a godless person which means I pretty much only like chocolate hot cross buns (although I’m sure if I tasted yours I might change my mind). IT’S SO LOVELY SEEING YOUR FABULOUS SELF – though your face wasn’t in there much 😛 And YAYYYY another minion soon for you to boss around (or who might boss you around, once it can…you know, talk).

YOU ARE COMPLETELY GODLESS IF YOU DON'T LIKE REGULAR HOT CROSS BUNS. SERIOUSLY. Sheesh, can I even talk to you?! HEEEH. KIDDING. YOU ARE AWESOME. And yes, my fabulous self. *tosses hair* This'll probs be the last time for, um, ever, so enjoy it. XD

Cooking with kids is always exciting, even when it’s just pretend cooking. The other day, the little boy I nanny for used his plastic kitchen set to make what he called “Silly Hat Salad” for me. The instructions are basically 1) chop all the ingredients while singing, 2) pour them in a bowl, 3) overturn the bowl onto your head and wear it as a silly hat.

Sad to say the only hot cross buns I’ve heard of are the ones in the song I play on the recorder. (You know, “Hot Cross buns, hot cross buns. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns…”) anyway. They look DELICIOUS. Now I gotta go find a recipe. Anyway, but according to Google you guys don’t Reese’s. (which unless you’re allergic to peanut butter, they MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND.)
Your little minions are adorable, Cait. I haven’t baked with preschoolers, but my own aunt was 17 when I was born and so when I was in preschool (she would have been about your age), we baked and had a blast together all the time. Xave and Eva must love you! 😉

Your ones are making my mouth water though – I can’t believe you managed to cook with the both of them! What an incredible feat!

Also…orange cake? o.O

Easter is all about giant chocolate eggs for us! Last year my sister duped me into buying a massive Lindor egg for a lot of precious saved-up money (fine…it was only six pounds – but I could have gotten SIX boxes of fried chicken and chips with that…) and I was foolish enough to think the massive egg would be filled with the delicious Lindor filling. It wasn’t. But we did get lots of mini Lindor eggs too, which thankfully were.

HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE SULATANAS? THEY ARE LIKE THE GIFT OF THE HEAVENS. *hyperventilates because saltanas* I totally rewarded myself by eating hot cross buns afterwards. I just hope I didn't eat the one that was on the floor. -_-DO NOT ASK ABOUT THE ORANGE CAKE *screams and wails and runs around in headless chicken circles*

I’m American and I do know what hot cross buns are . . . only because my English mother spotted a package of store-baked ones in the grocery store and bought them. I’m pretty sure she went through three packages of eight buns entirely by herself in a week. I am also fairly sure home baked buns are much better than store-bought ones. Your photograph nearly made my mouth water. (I need to go eat breakfast!).

Aww this was so cute. Love baking with kids, if I can keep their hands out of it. Yay for Canada, we do eat hot cross buns, but unfortunately I only have had store bought. Homemade must be so much better.

Oh those hot cross buns look delicious! I now want to try and find a recipe on pinterest so I can try this out. I prefer cooking or baking alone, I can’t stand have to work together with other peeps and the kitchen is my domain and I am a control freak, so yeah I do my cooking and baking alone usually. Although my boyfriend always helps and slices and dices the onion when I am cooking. We usually have an easter brunch around easter, this year we’ll be heading out for dinner to celebrate my sister’s birthday.

I BASICALLY LOVE THEM LIKE NOTHING ELSE TOO. I SERIOUSLY BELEIVE THEY ARE THE GIFT OF THE HEAVENS TO HUMANKIND. LIKE SERIOUSLY. LET'S JUST EAT THEM ALL YEAR ROUND. Yes.There is no shame in inhaling chocolate. I…I perhaps am guilty of it myself.

That sounds like quite the adventure! I don’t really like cooking (I have no patience) but my sister likes to cook a lot. And she’s ten. It’s kind of embarrassing. But then I remind my family that I’m writing a novel and that shuts them up. Usually.

My cousins are coming for Easter! We usually go to family or they come to us (I prefer the latter) and we have an Easter egg hunt. That’s kind of our only tradition. OH YEAH HOW DID I FORGET. The Easter Bunny comes during the night and brings us chocolate and gifts! (No one in my family actually believes it’s a real bunny anymore but it’s still fun.)

Also: Are you doing Camp NaNo anymore? I thought you said you were going to do it…or maybe not? IDK.

It's soooo weird, but I used to NEVER cook and now I love it. xD But my little sister refuses to ever cook. She doesn't even know her way around the pantry. -_- I hope you had a fun Easter with the relatives!! Chocolate = perfect happiness.I decided not to do Camp. I AM A SAD HUMAN BEAN. I AM. None of my books were ready. *sigh*

We…don’t really do anything for Easter (wow, this is awkward) apart from eat chocolate eggs. Sometimes, my mum does get hot cross buns in though.

Cooking with small children? Are you joking? They’d probably be better at it than me! One time, I made something and had my fingers crossed under the table the entire time my family were eating it because I legitimately thought I was going to give them food poisoning (I didn’t, but I’ll never live it down 🙁 ). Thankfully, I am better now than what I used to be 😉

Easter is always a crazy holiday for us. Besides the normal dressing-up and going to church, we have about 30 people over every year, and the highlight of the day is the Easter egg hunt. We have one normal hunt for the little kids, and then we have a crazy competition for the older kids, up to age 18. In the past years we’ve done three-legged-race hunts, blindfolded hunts, night-time-glow-in-the-dark hunts, and one really exhausting relay race hunt. Plus the eggs don’t just have candy, there are also a couple bonus eggs with money prizes, so the parents all hide them really well, which includes burying them sometimes. So you can imagine how competitive we get.

I LOVE HOT CROSS BUNS! We got the chocolate ones this weekend (chocolate chips instead of raisins) and they are AMAZING! I’m absolutely terrible at cooking/baking – it’s always a disaster. Looks like you had fun though! 😀

Okay, but seriously, I always love chocolate buuuuut IT FEELS WRONG TO HAVE HOT CROSS BUNS MINUS RAISINS. *collapses* However, I will forgive you because you are cool. Pfft, I'm always a disaster in the kitchen too. But SOMETIMES things taste good.

Loved the pictures! Was nice to see a different kind of post as well 🙂 (I obviously still love everything else you post about!) I live in the UK and my family and I love hot cross buns, for the Easter Weekend I’ve travelled back home (I only live an hour away) we are about to go to the cinema together to see the new Fast and Furious film, then having a meal out and tomorrow I will be eating lots and lots of easter eggs! Hope you have a lovely easter. Angelica x

I swear I have never actually seen or heard of anyone making hot cross buns. They sound really good! I love baking! I always have a fantastic time creating recipes. I love seeing the person behind the blog sometimes. I hope they were extra delicious!!

Omg, really?! I had noooo idea they were a mostly UK/AUS thing until I looked it up for this post! Apparently we Aussies steal so much stuff from the UK. 😉 AHH!! YES! Now you know I truly do exist and have a face. ^_^

I don’t know the exact rules about hot cross buns (you’re supposed to eat them on Good Friday?) because I’m not a Christian… but we did eat those yummy treats around Easter here in Canada. They’d start showing up in the stores, and of course my sister and I would want them. I always liked the kind that had candied fruit bits as well as raisins… but then, what kid doesn’t like candied stuff? (I’m not eating gluten anymore, and have yet to find a vegan, gluten-free hot cross bun recipe… which actually sounds kind of disgusting, even if it does exist; they’d probably be like rocks).

I cooked with my cousin when she was about four (this was a few years ago now). Well, maybe it wasn’t actually cooking, as we weren’t aiming to make something edible. She had this kit to make popcorn balls that were coated in this orange candy syrup and decorated with black candies (so they looked like Halloween pumpkins). The box said to pop the popcorn on the stove, in a pot with some oil. I’d never done it that way, and I was pretty sure I would’ve burned it if I had attempted it. So my uncle left out a bag of microwave popcorn and we used that. After cooking up the syrup (which I did… with careful supervision from my cousin standing on a chair, of course), I spent the next half hour trying to form greasy, buttery, microwave popcorn smeared with orange goo into balls. There’s a reason they want you to use dry popcorn. They just wouldn’t stick together. We had to give up, and then try to get all that orange crap off our hands. I think my cousin was kind of disappointed, but she took it really well (much better than I would’ve at that age)!

As for Easter, years ago (before my grandfather died and some of the grand-kids moved away), there would always be a big dinner — buffet style, because you couldn’t fit all of us at one table. The menu often involved ham, or sometimes turkey. Everybody would sit around and eat. My grandmother would have an Easter basket stuffed with goodies for each of the kids (and most of us had probably already had a visit from the Easter Bunny that morning). So it was pretty much all about the food… and the chocolate… and very wired children.

Pfft, I had NO idea about the “rules” of hot Cross buns either. xD In my family it's tradition to have them on Good Friday, but we didn't this year. We are rebels. ;-)Omg those orange popcorn ball thingies sound like QUITE the adventure. Seriously, though, it's hard making new or unknown recipes. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL AND HUGE.That sounds like quite the huge and massive easter though. Chocolate + hypo children = totally know how you feel. xD We had basically a sugar free Easter, and the small ones at my house still exploded and ran around in circles after their chocolate. XD It was hilarious and kind of worrying.

I LOVE THESE POSTS, CAIT! I would not mind at all if you posted more of THE ADVENTURES OF CAIT THE MINION AND THE TINY OVERLORDS (GUEST STARING ATTICUS THE FLUFFY FLOOR CLEANER).

Anyway. No, I’ve never eaten Hot Cross Buns. Heard of them, yes, but have never eaten them. Our Easter traditions mostly involve dying eggs and eating delicious lunch on Easter Day. Our church used to have a Sunrise Breakfast on Easter, but they stopped doing that (it’s rather sad– I like food).

I have cooked with preschoolers. Our messiest cooking jobs tend to be when we make sugar cookies for Christmas. I mix the dough, but the kids get to decorate them with sprinkles.

Congratulations for the new niece or nephew! We expect a post about him or her, you know that, right? XD

I AM STEALING THAT TITLE ASAP. BECAUSE ATTICUS THE FLUFFY FLOOR CLEANER SHOULD BE HIS NEW TITLE. He needs that embroidered on a coat or something. He does. Dyeing eggs is seriously cool though. My sister (who married an American, and these small hooligans pictured are actually 50% americans) always dyes eggs, but we never do. It's a “weird” thing for us. XD BREAKFAST AT SUNRISE THOUGH?!! I mean, I am an early riser, but that still feels too early. xD #amalsoawimp(Gah, yes, I know…there will probs be a post soon because the newest small one was born today!! SQUEEEEE. A GIRL!!)

*whispers* I won't denying I have double-dipped on occasion. But I at least TRY to pretend I'm not. My niece just does it and grins at me, like “watcha gonna do about it?” Which, the answer is: nothing. xD THEY ARE TOO CUTE AND HAVE ME WRAPPED AROUND THEIR FINGERS.

I have never had a hot cross bun. I’ve actually never seen one in person, either. And cooking with preschoolers…um, well, let’s just say when ended up with semi-editable hockey pucks. And for Easter we go up to my Grandparent’s, keep the dogs away from the Easter eggs, and live off of candy and ham for like two days.

Which means it’s always awesome. And totally worth the one heck of a migraine I always get the day after.

I’m Canadian, and it just dawned on me, while reading your post, that we’ve always had Hot Cross Buns around on Easter. I never particularly thought of them as Easter treats, but I guess they are! Ha! Thank you for enlightening me.

I liked seeing the pictures of you and your niece and nephew! You should do more posts like this!

I have never cooked with ‘preschoolers’ and to be honest that sounds like a bit of a nightmare, but I can’t deny how adorable those pictures were. I know a friend who would love that though, she so great with toddlers! Your homemade hot cross buns looked delicious. I don’t normally eat hot cross buns because… I dunno, really. But I suspect homemade ones would be delicious. My sister made her trademark cupcakes yesterday and brought them over – they were so mouthwateringly delicious I had to take pictures, which I just posted on my blog! Those were gone in one sitting too. XD

When you mentioned cashews I was like c: I love cashew nuts. It’s always nice to get something a little different from reviews, and I enjoyed this post! You ever-loyal pineapple, Ashana.

Omg, give me a second, while I just drool over cupcakes. I think I saw pictures of those on your blog and um, YES PLEASE I WOULD LIKE TO EAT ONE OR NINE. Good food never lasts. ;-)Cashews are liiiiife. We do all our baking with almond meal instead of flour. Because we are ODD. But whatever. XD Heheh. Yes, it is always fun to see a bit of the-life-behind-the-blogger, right?!

Have I cooked with preschoolers……hahahahaha what a joke, when HAVEN’T I cooked with preschoolers?! Basically every time I cook is with preschoolers…

Yessss we Americans are totally missing out. We eat “Resurrection rolls” in my family though, which is basically crescent rolls that you spread with butter and cinnamon sugar and roll a giant marshmallow in, then bake. And when they come out of the oven–GASP! The marshmallow disappeared! Just like Jesus, leaving his wrappings behind! And then we eat the stuff. ;P

Also…do y’all just call raisins sultanas or are they different?!

For Easter tomorrow I’m singing in the church choir musical/drama thing. It’s fun but a lot of work, and if I’m being completely honest, the best part of the entire thing is getting to be part of the rowdy crowd and yelling “CRUCIFY HIM!!” at the top of my lungs. Ha…apparently it scares the choir director how good we are at being a rowdy mob… the first time we practiced that, he was like, “Well. Let’s just hope y’all never decide to crucify this choir director.” (Yes, we are totally hilarious. It’s awesome.)

THIS IS LIKE THE BEST COMMENT OF EVER. omg, I love cooking with preschoolers but it's quite the extreme sport. 0_0 Later on I ended up cooking pumpkin soup with the 2year old and that was equally interesting. OMG I wish to tray these Resurrection rolls though!

I’ve never had hot cross buns before! (i’m american, so that may have something to do with it) I think I’m missing out. 🙁 I have baked with toddlers, though, and my controlling self was close to exploding. Oh my. My mom does make these yummy little things called Resurrection Rolls on Easter Sunday. And after going to church, we go to a relative’s house for dinner. It’s pretty nice overall. 🙂

These kids are so cute, omg! I’m glad you had a wonderful and enjoyable Easter weekend; I like these personal posts of yours. They are very refreshing and nice to read about. Also, I’ve never had hot cross buns before so I definitely must try those sometime.

It certainly looked like survival! This is awesome. The MisAdventures of C. G. Drews, aka the Destruction Coordinator. See, not so boring. 😉

We don’t normally do anything out of the normal for Easter except color eggs and egg hunt (my parents used to put money in some of the eggs in attempt to prolong my and my brothers’ hunting years). I think that might change somewhat this year as it seems my mom is crazy busy in the kitchen (she actually hates cooking, so she’s being very ambitious). We kind of just be lazy all day. We might play board games and watching a movie is almost always in order.

I’ve never really cooked with preschoolers. . . but I have cooked with my two closet brothers. That was very interesting. We had to take turns stirring, and we did actually follow all of the directions. But somehow the pancakes still taste a little, eh, off? They were edible, but I suspect that all of us added the required amount of baking powder without telling the others that we had.

That will totally be the title of my autobiography. Cooking with brothers sounds just as interesting. My nephew is actually surprisingly good, but Eva? GAH. She eats everything and has no concept of “hey let's not tip THE ENTIRE JAR OF CLOVES in the mixture, lest we die.”. -_-

Your niece and nephew are adorable. 🙂 Geniuses in the making. I think you have some competition for the throne, Cait.

YES, US AMERICANS ARE CLEARLY MISSING OUT. They look delicious. Everyone overseas gets the best food. What did we invent? Hot dogs. Blech. (Thank goodness my mom’s Portuguese, otherwise I fear we’d be living in a bland world of corn on the cob and grilled cheese, which, don’t get me wrong, is wonderful, but awfully . . . yellow. I like a little color on my plate.)

(Just looked it up, and apparently Germany invented hot dogs. So now I have no idea what we’ve discovered besides corn, which Native Americans taught us how to grow before we kicked them out of their homes. *sighs heavily*)

THEY ARE COMPLETELY ADORABLE. *squishes them* Pfft, they are minions, not overlords. Well. I mean, I try to tell them that but so far my success rate in “Cait is the boss” is like, um in the small percentiles.

I don’t understand why we don’t have this as a practice during Good Fridays in the Philippines. Here, Good Fridays are usually spent not eating… meat. Hahaha. It’s a fasting day, a day where you sacrifice something you do all the time (like maybe not play video games, or not eat meat, or not watch TV). I mean, it meant a lot of reading, BUT IWOULD LOVE TO EAT HOT CROSS BUNS but I don’t think any of my family or friends know how to make one 🙁

And also, your pictures of you and the little ones are so bloody adorable. I love them!

OOOH. Fasting. Sounds awful. xD Haha. Sorry. I just have never fasted (unless I've been illl) and I can just envision myself being totally grumpy). Totoally try Hot cross buns if you ever get the chance. XD AREN'T THEY JUST THE CUTEST?!! I am such a lucky aunt.

I’ve never had a hotcross bun. I actually didn’t even know what it was. What? I have to play that song because I’m taking music in school and for some reason, that song always comes back to me. But at least now I know.

The pictures! YAY! I really enjoyed seeing visuals plus the text because cute children are :3 to me. Also, through your stress, I’d just like to say that they look amazing <3

One of my fondest memories is ‘helping’ my two children make and decorate their own birthday cakes each year. They would pour over the Woman’s Weekly children’s birthday cake book and inevitably choose the design requiring the most cake to make. Oh the happy snaps I have of headless ducks, fallen over rockets………such fun!

Wow, that was quite the adventure. Thanks for sharing! I’m a huge foodie, so I always enjoy pictures of food and cooking. Surprisingly, though, I don’t remember every eating a hot cross bun. Care to share the recipe? I’m intrigued by the cashews and coconut syrup (my family is weird like that, too).

I once tried to bake a cake with slightly older children, and that was chaotic enough! The 9-year-old swore that she was an expert egg cracker. LIES. There were so many egg shells in the batter. It was fun, though, and everything still worked out somehow. 🙂

My family doesn’t do anything for Easter, but whenever we do have gatherings, there is ALWAYS lots of delicious food. We all have specific dishes that we’re known for. Mmm, holidays should always revolve around food.

I'm like a foodie wannabe. I love food but I'm a little picky *sigh* The recipe for this one is off quirkycooking.com I should've linked to it! I think it's originally made on honey, but I'm allergic to honey so we went coconut syrup.

:O This is adorable and awesome. You’re right, we Americans don’t really do this. Instead we served everybody casserole for breakfast for Easter, and it was also nice. Also, there were muffins from Safeway. ANYWAY. Happy Easter, and your family is adorable. I’m just saying.

Please watch your puppy carefully. Grapes, currants, sultanas, raisins etc are all toxic to dogs. My labradoodle stole raisin bread and has followed my twins around hoovering up the sultanas they drop and never had a reaction but a puppy might be a whole different story because of it’s size. I never knew they were toxic until last Easter

Sadly, I hadn’t heard of these before today. Boo. I, um, also don’t like raisins (please don’t kick me off your planet when you are ruler, okay?) but the buns themselves sound amazing.

As for culinary adventures with preschoolers… why yes, yes I have. My 3.5 year old (goes by the name of Lena) is about as useless as I am in the kitchen. And she doesn’t want to be bothered after awhile (again, much like me) so she’ll just wander away, covered in a mess, and flop on the couch, often to read (this is seriously no doubt my kid). She also loves the word ‘human”, but she pronounces it like “hoo-man” and it makes me chuckle every time because she is SO SERIOUS. She’ll say “mom, we are hoo-mans, but Sam is just a BABY”, because obviously a baby is the worst thing one can be.

Also, MORE MINIONS!? This is so very exciting for you (and I suppose your sister too, but let’s focus on YOU!), but I need to know its name and sex. Why won’t she tell me!? Please post more of your adventures. We love them.

Ohhh, I don't know, Shannon. Not gonna promise anything. HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE RAISINS?! THEY ARE THE GIFT OF THE HEAVENS TO HUMANKIND.I loved the hoo-man story, though. I totally want to say hoo-man now. My sister just had her baby (another girl!! SQUEE) and my niece had a tantrum about the fact that she has a sister. She's claiming she is THE ONLY GIRL. Apparently there can only be one. -_-

Oh, I love to cook! I’ve only been able to regularly get into the kitchen without fear of being scorned or shoved out (we’re passionate cooks, ‘parently), and now I get to experiment with Gluten Free, which, let me tell you, is not necessarily the easiest task in the world. Often it ends in cardboard disasters. We binned our hot cross buns (*I* thought they were fine) last year, and this year they were… not exciting, let’s say. And are also rock solid.

omg, I hear ya with the gluten free. I've been gluten free most of my life. (I'm not Celiac though, just don't tolerate wheat well) and now I'm completely grain free. It kind of sucks, but my health is better. *shrugs* Gluten Free Flour is EVIL.

Oh how utterly gorgeous, it’s the smushie family! I love cooking with kiddies, it’s like baking with mini Swedish Muppet chefs. I’ve never tried to make my own hot cross buns, I actually don’t eat them myself, because I loathe sultanas (yes, you’re weird for loving them that much). But I wouldn’t mind trying to make the chocolate variety. Those turned out deliciously good, I don’t eat them and even I’m craving one now. How many weeks is sister smushie? Hope mum and bub are doing well and she has a quick and easy labour (pretty sure that’s never the case though).

Is that your mum’s kitchen? I love the modern country chic, really lovely.

It's like baking with MINI CYCLONES OF DOOM AND ADORABLE DESTRUCTION. It's hard to be cross when the 2 year old has a bedazzling heart-melting smile and is tipping all the cloves into the bowl. I mean, until we eat a hot cross bun full of cloves and nearly die. -_-YES. Mum's kitchen. We had like 29820 projects going on, apparently, whilst photos were being taken. Easter is chaos. Just imagine christmas. Omg. Don't. It's terror.(Big Sister Smushie just had the baby yesterday! IT'S A GIRL AND I'M A VERY PLEASED AUNTIE.)

YUMMMMMMMMM Those Hot Cross buns! They look freaking AMAZING! Thanks for sharing this little tidbit of your Easter weekend with us Cait, it looks like you got to eat delicious hot cross buns and your niece and nephew are so cute!

Oooh as much as I love reading about books, I also adore reading life-glimpses like this.

We don’t make hot cross buns, but we do make something similar – it’s a Ukrainian puffy bread called a paska and it also has a cross on it and sometimes raisins – it actually kind of looks similar… But it can be a bunch of different sizes, depending on how many people you expect to come for the Easter feast! (Or you could just make a huge one and eat it all yourself with wonderful cheese-butter.) The bigger ones have more intricate braided designs on top. Sometimes we make little bird-shaped breads to decorate the top with and put cloves as eyes.

On the Saturday before Easter, we put the paska in baskets with eggs and sausage and cheese and other food and take it to church where the priest blesses it. And then we eat all the blessed food for Easter.

I really like the sound of eating the huge one all by oneself. That would be me. (Honestly, I'm notoriously bad at sharing food.) Your hot cross buns sounds like works of ART though. It is magical. I'm kind of jealous. My hot cross bun was most likely scooped off the floor before the dog licked it…GEE. No comparison.

Ooh. Your version of hot cross buns is WILDLY different from my one. Yours look like deliciously sticky gooey cupcake-type buns. The ones I make are made with yeast, then raisins, candied peel, and spices added, bashed into submission three times (with an hours rest in-between each time) before being shaped into rolls and baked on flat trays. Mine are probably a lot less sweet than yours, more like a spice-fugged, fruit-stuffed, bready soft roll. I wonder how many other versions there are?

HA! Yes! That is true. Ours came out more like cakes than buns in the end because we built it on almond flour instead of wheat, I guess?? I MEAN I HAVE NO IDEA. I just eat stuff, I don't know the science behind cooking. I fail. XD I'm sure there are tons of different versions, right?! My friend (just a few comments above yours!) was just describing Ukranian buns and omg. They sounded SO DELICIOUS. And different yet again!

I have never had hot cross buns, but they look delicious! However, I am not a raisin fan, so I’d be picking very gingerly around them. I’ve also never cooked with preschoolers. My activities in the kitchen are already enough of a challenge, so I applaud you for supervising toddlers while turning out these delicious treats. (Minus the evil raisins, of course.)

Ah, you would probably hate them then. XD They are like for raisin lovers. (Of which I am chief.) It is an interesting experience doing this with small ones. 0_0 I don't usually mind, but new recipe + preschoolers = Cait in a fluster.

AW, ELLA, YOU COMPLETELY MAKE MY DAY, THOUGH. ehhe. The owl shirt is pretty much my favouritest shirt in the universe. (I'm pretty sure one isn't supposed to have favourite shirts at 21, but pfffft. Whatever. I DO.)Ahem. YES! EASTER IS DELICIOUS. I'm kind of sad for you though. Easter eggs kiiiind of balances it out though. *nods*

YAY YOU EXPERIENCED THEIR WONDERFULNESS!! You've made an excellent life decision, truly, you have. (Just sayin'.) And pfft, I would pick cooking with preschoolers over cooking with a male anytime. xD HAHA.

Ok I LOVED this post! I don’t think I’d have the patience to bake stuff with two pre-schoolers, but then again, I often don’t even have the patience to bake with my Mum. :’) I’ve never made hot cross buns (they’re not a thing in the Netherlands), but I saw all these recipes floating around the blogosphere during Easter so now I’m curious! Perhaps I’ll remember to try and make them next year.

Seems like you had tons of (stressful) fun! Hope you had a great Easter 🙂